Could we get an owner/coder perspective on this?

~G~rin.

I, for one, have no problem whatsoever with an OOC decision being made about how much time is "enough" for a new player. That's clearly a necessity for the continuing health of the game. I would simply prefer to find a way to avoid the implausible RP that results from those decisions if at all possible. My opposition to the -48 regime at present is not about denying the legitimate concerns of the administrators, but rather about me wanting to be able to completely and freely role play my character within the framework provided.

I'm interested in particular for comments about the idea I had with a "report disrespect" type function. The more I think about it, the more I think that it might be a feasible alternative. It seems to provide a hardcoded way to ensure the -48 still has its beneficial effects and avoid the downsides making people put up with disrespect for another 24 hours unnecessarily, since I agree entirely that a bit of human judgment is probably necessary when it comes to this issue. As an added bonus from the coder-side, it seems to my non-code-seeing-eyes like a lot of the grunt work of coding it would be done already in the form of the report spam feature, just needing new variables plugged in.

Other than that, a "twenty four and two" type solution such as Squishy just offered seems like another pretty good alternative to me.

I am quite for the 24+2 scenario. Gives people more then enough time to get a family. And a major problem is solved.

As Lucretia said, OOC poll on how much is enough time for a new player. Let's solve this shit and move on.

I strongly disagree with an age level being foisted upon characters at start up and immediately following, as it limits, as it both limits and removes aspect of character creation and introduction.

Sure - at 24 hours, you are still a child, at an age that any man with any dignity or self respect would never point a gun at over his own insecurities about a child running on his turf. However, when that child becomes a teenager - all bets are off.

The problem with this from an RP point of view is that it's making the mafia into good guys that they simply weren't. See my above example of "pregnant woman beaten to death in the boss's parking lot" for an example. The mob would certainly protect their own from the reaches of a non-mafia child killer, but if a Made Man were to do it, they'd be more likely to hide the evidence than even raise a finger in anger against the Made Guy. After all, he's "one of us," but his victim was ... just some random kid. Sure, it was just a kid and an evil act, but it wasn't our kid, and the man who shot him it was family.

I'll offer a more thorough reply to this later on, but the most obvious flaw in the 'child' RP angle is that you can't really begin to put ages on characters, unless we all have a life expectancy. 24 Hours is child, so 0-12 and by 48 hours maximum you've aged to 13-19. Carrying through this scale would make BrianRourke like 4000 years old, which would make even less sense than his still being alive at the moment.

I would also suggest that a 'child' robbing numerous old ladies, running drugs or indulging in any other sort of crime is unlikely to be spared the heat from any organized crime syndicate. This is business after all.

~G~rin.

The mafia did not shoot children for practice, which is why I think it's ridiculous to use any term like "child" to describe someone who has been here less than 24 or 48 hours. It is entirely unnecessary, restricts character freedom, and makes no sense at all.

"Soo the mafia shot children for practice? Just making sure I got your message correctly. :)"

I'll respond to this assuming we all accept the "child" angle, which I agree with Kates and Grin is again a restriction that is in its own way counterproductive.

I'm not saying the mafia was full of bloodthirsty child killers. I am saying that if a mafioso shot a kid accidentally, took things a bit too far when roughing one up and killed him, or otherwise ended up with a child's blood on their hands, in that case a mafioso would have his boss and his family as people he could go to for help hiding the evidence of his mistake. He absolutely under no circumstances would have a boss looking to try to solve the crime and shoot the murderer. That's not a mafioso's job, that's a policeman's job, and in fact, a mafioso who did something like that to a Made Man would in fact be breaking one of the cardinal rules of organized crime. Mafioso look out for each other and everyone else is dirt. Even if it's a pregnant woman. Even if it's a kid. Absolutely. That is the proper in-character reaction for a mafioso: "I don't care about that guy, he's nothing to me. I will help my family hide the evidence of his crime, because he is family and the other guy is not."